Hey guys. Here is (finally) the next chapter to Blind Uchiha Beauty. Phew, it took me FOREVER to write it, and it's a little bit short, only a page or two on Word off of what I normally write, but I got it to the stopping point sooner than I expected. So here you go!

Disclaiimer: Der-der-der, you know what it is

Luv much
Nicola

Chapter Six: Father and Daughter

Sasuke looked anxiously about him, searching for any sign of his missing daughter. Poor Mikoto, running around by herself, all alone trying to figure out what was really wrong with her. He could only see her face right now, imagining her in the trees, behind a bush, everywhere. But she wasn't there. And it was his job to find her for real and bring her home.

Everywhere he looked, he saw her black hair billowing about her pale face, her sad little frown she always wore, the melancholy look in her dull, ashen eyes. He saw the downcast gaze she put on whenever she was around him, and the sad shuffle of her feet when he put her down. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to forget all of the horrible things he'd said to her, but they wouldn't let him. He kept hearing over and over again how he'd called her weak, told her she was never going to be as strong as her brother, commented on her inability to perform taijustu as well at Itake. Damn, what a horrible father he was.

Next to him ran Kaede, his wife, his longtime love, and just looking at her told him she was angry with him, too. She mostly blamed him for their daughters split second decision to take off to Kami knows where. And he could honestly say that it was probably all his fault, if not the majority of it. He was the one with the attitude problem, the inability to understand anything that his daughter was trying to tell him. Sure, he knew he loved his little girl, because that's what she was—his little girl, his baby. But he still treated her like his father had treated him.

He remembered growing up to the sound of everyone around him praising his brother, the amazing Itachi, the Uchiha prodigy, the perfect son, etcetera, etcetera. Of course, he'd always looked up to Itachi, seen him as a wonderful older brother who cared so much for his family. One of the reasons he'd always encouraged Itake to be so good to his sister was because of what had happened with his own brother. For those few years, the small moments when Itachi had shown Sasuke compassion, it had been bliss. Then, the massacre had happened.

Sasuke could hardly stand to think about it, after all these years. But every time he tried to focus on something else, his daughter's face popped up, right next to his father's and Itachi's. Poor Mikoto…she was such a sweet girl, always had been. Lately, though, he'd seen a change in her that his wife told him he was stupid never to have seen before. She was distant, hesitant, like she was walking on a paper thin sheet of ice over a bed of nails. It was only around him, too. When he managed to sneak a peak at her when she was hanging around with her brother or Kaede or any of her friends, she was exuberant and bright-eyed and brave.

Around him, though, she acted as if she were waiting for him to strike out and hit her or something. He would never hurt her in any way, at least, not knowingly. She had no reason to be nervous. He'd go so far as to say that she was more than cautious and nervous—she was frightened. And once he'd started realizing this, he'd noticed the shade of her eyes.

Growing up with Uchiha's had taught him to understand the way the Sharingan worked, what to look for when someone showed the ability to possess the legendary ability. After reading what was under the seventh Tatami mat, where the Uchiha clan had used to meet secretly, he'd learned and understood everything about Sharingan, absolutely everything. Why he hadn't noticed what was wrong with his daughter, he couldn't fathom. But he knew now. He'd first noticed the trademark dullness in her eyes a few days ago. It was a sign that he had read about, a sign that pointed towards permanent blindness. Hayato had only confirmed his suspicions.

And now, here he was, looking for his little girl, lost and disoriented and going blind. He had no idea where she would go, but he did know that he was going to find her even if it killed him. Horrific thoughts kept flashing through his mind—Itachi getting a hold of her, Orochimaru convincing her to come with him, someone else from his past popping up out of nowhere and taking her with them.

"Kaede," he said suddenly, an idea forming in his quickly calculating mind, "What's the one place you would go if you were upset?"

Smirking, Kaede took hardly a second to answer. "The Valley."

"We aren't anywhere near it," Sasuke muttered, and cursed under his breath. "Dammit. Kaede, you keep going this way, okay? I'm going to go back and try to catch up with the team who's heading in that direction." He grabbed her hand and she stopped, looking proudly up at him.

"Go get our little baby home," she whispered, and he kissed her quickly before disappearing, running at an ungodly speed.



I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.

Once it had hit me that I probably was going blind (after I'd realized that, hello, my dad always told me the straight-up truth) I could not work up the courage to open up my eyes to the truth. Literally. For the past hour I'd been sitting with my eyes closed, petrified that if I opened them there wouldn't be any change, that I would see only the empty, black darkness, the unending colorless space of time I'd forever be trapped in. I would never see the sky again; see my brother smile or my dad sneer, or my mom give Dad the goo-goo eyes that I'd always hated. What kind of life would that be?

Okay, I told myself, hitting the hard ground irritably with my fist. I was going to open my eyes. Now! Nope, nothing. Alright, now! Still, my eyes stayed shut tight and refused to budge. I couldn't will them open, apparently. So what if I wanted to see? It didn't' necessarily mean that I was going to. Right? So then what was the point of opening my eyes if I wasn't necessarily going to see the sky and the water and the two statues?

Confounded even further, I sighed heavily and lifted my hands to my eyes, physically forcing them open. For a moment, I felt a scream rising in my throat as nothing around me came into view. There was just the empty hollow blackness I was mortified to see. Fear coursed through me, several long seconds passing before the scream actually reached the tip of my tongue. And then, just before I could shriek, everything came into view. The rocks, the trees, the water, the sky, the clouds, the two rock formations of the two greatest ninjas, and the pale color of my own skin. The only difference was the dull sheen to it all, the way it all looked slightly fuzzy and almost colorless. But I could still see it—it was all there.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I ran a hand through my black hair and leaned back, staring at the darkening sky. No, it wasn't darkening because I was going blind, but because of the time of day. The sky was turning into a glassy mixture of pink, orange, yellow, and blue. White clouds glowing pink around the edges whooshed silently across the setting sun, and I formed a mental picture of this moment, saving it for later, when it would be taken from me. It was all so unjust, though. It wasn't right. For so long I had taken my vision for granted, for so long I'd been able to see everything, and now…even against my strongest will, I was going blind.

And no matter how hard I tried to make myself believe it wasn't true, it wouldn't work. Because every time I opened my eyes and looked around, I saw everything blurry, dull, the bright colors blunt compared to what they used to be. And on top of it all I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. I'd already drank from the pool of water at the end of the waterfall, fished and cooked with a little fire that had quickly distinguished itself, only lasting long enough for me to make the small fish edible.

With the sunrise still pictured in my head, I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair, untangling it and picking at all the knots that had formed over the day. It was so soft and smooth once brushed; I knew most of the girls my age envied me for it. They were always primping and fixing themselves up for the boys, but I wasn't like that. I preferred to work at my skills, my faults, and surpassing them. While they sprayed their hair down with hairspray and fluffed it up, I trained and sparred and performed jutsu after jutsu after jutsu, trying to be perfect. They never understood why I worked so hard—but I knew. My dad was the reason.

I started to braid my hair, closing my eyes and letting my fingers do the work. In the darkness that I knew would soon take over (hopefully not too soon), I could picture things that had happened in the past, happy memories that I always kept close to my heart whenever I was down. And now, I was at my lowest.

One of the memories I loved the most was the one when Mom had been out on another mission (she'd been gone a lot during our early years) and I'd been playing with Soma and Itake and Arashi outside. Being stupidly clumsy even then, I had fallen over my own feet and landed in a mud puddle. I'd come up covered in mud and dirt, and had to face the laughs of Itake and Arashi, telling me that I was stupid and ugly and couldn't even walk down the road without falling. Crying, I'd run inside, vaguely hearing Soma yelling at our older siblings to shut up and leave me alone.

Dad (then Daddy to me) had grabbed me up halfway through the living room, looking concerned, and carted me off to the bathroom where he cleaned me up and dressed me in a fresh pair of pajamas. We'd sat in the living room, on the floor, me in front of him sitting between his feet. He brushed my hair, telling me how pretty it was and how pretty I was. And then, awkward as it must have been for him, he'd started to braid my hair into little braids, only a few strands in each braid. Carefully he went about it, being gentle and particular about each one. And he'd said that I should just ignore my brother because he was jealous of me, jealous that I was cuter than him. But I wasn't supposed to say that—Itake would only get more upset.

So now, as I braided my hair by myself, feeling the ache in my heart getting stronger and stronger, I tried to keep that memory in mind, holding it there and replaying it over and over. I pretended that it wasn't my hands braiding my hair, but my father's, back again as a little mud-covered child, crying because her older brother and her older brother's fried were picking on her for tripping.

It felt nice, thinking that Dad still cared enough about me to braid my hair and tell me I was the prettiest little girl in the whole world, simply because I was his little girl. Oh, how I wished I could go back and live in those days again. Dad and I had been so close. What happened to make our relationship so strained?

I sighed and put my hands on either side of me, my hair braided. I reluctantly opened my eyes, greeted by the darkness that sent fear through me. In a moment, though, the dark lightened up, and I could see the scenery. I should have felt relieved, but I didn't. I only felt more fear. Where there should have been blue and brown and white and green and yellow was only gray. Everything was a different shade of gray. At the realization that all the colors were missing, I gasped and my hand flew to my chest, as if it alone could stop the rapid pounding of my heart.

This was happening too fast, too soon. I didn't want to lose my sight, not yet. I'd only just begun to come to terms with it! What kind of world was this? What kind of cruel maker was there that took one of life's most precious gifts away from me? It wasn't fair! It seemed that life was out to get me. Yes, I was wallowing in self pity, and yes, it could have been a lot worse. But to me, losing the color of things was almost as bad as losing them completely. What was the point of seeing something if the bright shades couldn't be determined?

Swallowing hard, I stood up on shaky legs and walked over to the edge of the water, staring down at my reflection. I looked absolutely horrified, and I had a right to be. My clouded eyes were wide and frightened, my mouth agape, my forehead creased in worry. The only thing I could focus on that wouldn't scare me further were the braids falling around my face. When I looked at them, I could think about Dad and his soft voice as he told me how wonderful I was.

Even that didn't last long, though, because the moment I remembered how kind he used to be, I remembered how cruel he was. And then…and then I just became more upset. My father hated me, my big brother thought I was a failure, my best friend was disappointed in me, and now I was going blind. Damn this stupid world!

I hadn't realized I'd cursed the world out loud until I saw the birds perched on a rock several yards away fly up and away with loud squawks. As I glared after their retreating figures, I heard something in the trees behind me. It was rustling, brushing, whooshing noises. Turning my head, I blinked my malfunctioning eyes and squinted through the trees. My hearing was acute, and from the distant sound to the noise, I figured whatever it was, was pretty far away, and gaining. And it wasn't just one—there were more, maybe four or five.

"Shit," I muttered, looking around for anywhere that I could hide. They were shinobi from my village, coming to find me and take me home. I didn't want to go home, and they weren't going to get me as long as I could see and take care of myself. Spying a small dip in the rock formations, I made my way towards it and carefully slid down, finding that it was a cave that went underneath the pool of water. I could hear the rushing of the water above my head as I sat crouched there, staying as silent as possible.

I depended solely on my hearing to tell me how far away the shinobi were, and as they grew closer I could hear them talking amongst themselves. I recognized two voices right away—one was my Aunt Miki (not really my Aunt but my mother's longtime best friend), and the other was Donovan, Miki's son and Arana's twin brother. They were discussing something about dinner, which I thought was odd considering that they were out looking for me. And then, I heard a third voice that made my heart nearly do somersaults.

Soma was with them, firmly reminding them that there was a missing person that they needed to find. I felt my heart swell at the sound of my name coming out of his mouth. Yes, I was a bubbly teenager whenever around Soma, but he was just such an amazing, handsome, strong, loyal, loving guy. It would be impossible not to have a crush on him. And in my current situation, hearing his voice made me feel better than I had in days.

But I couldn't come out of my hiding spot, no matter how much I wanted to run out and hug him and have him tell me everything was going to be alright. I couldn't go back; I couldn't go face my father, my brother, the fact that I would never be a ninja, never fight again. I had pretty much forfeited my position in ANBU, my title of Jounin, and my reputation as a decent shinobi. There was nothing left for me to go back to.

And yet…when Soma and the others (the fourth whom I couldn't recognize, since they hadn't spoken yet), I found it extremely hard to stay still and stay quiet. That is, until I heard the fourth person speak to his teammates.

The moment the first word came out of his mouth, I knew it was my father. And I knew that I had hardly any chance of escaping capture. With Miki's and Donovan's eyes, Dad's Sharingan, and Soma's strange ability to sense when I was near, I was bound to be found out. I shut my eyes tight, forgetting that every time I had closed my eyes so far, I'd opened them to a further development of my blindness.

"Mikoto!" Soma called out, walking closer to my hiding spot. "Where are you? Mikoto, come out, please! We're worried about you!"

They were worried about me. Not him, they. I cringed and didn't try to stop the grief that was washing over me. Why would I even think that Soma would care? He was just a friend, a brother to me, nothing more. I heard him call my name over and over; his voice mixing with everyone else's except for my father's. He kept getting closer, closer, closer to my little cave. And I still didn't realize that keeping my eyes closed was a dangerous thing.

"Please, Mikoto! Come out! Let's go home!"

I ignored Donovan's calls.

"Mikoto, honey, your mother is upset, she's so worried!"

Forget about Miki, I told myself.

"Please!"

Soma didn't matter.

All these voices, calling my name, telling me to come home, reminding me how I was upsetting everyone, reminding me that I was a failure, that this was only proving it. And yet I couldn't make myself come out. This was the only defiant thing I'd ever done in my life, and I was not about to let go of it. That is, until another voice called out.

"Mikoto," Dad said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, "Come home, Mikoto. We miss you. We love you. We—I need you home, Mikoto."

I felt myself moving towards the cave entrance, my eyes still closed. I could sense the dim light behind my eyelids, but I didn't dare open them. Dad's voice, quiet but there, kept ringing in my ears. He needed me. He missed me. He loved me. Did he really? Or was he only saying that to get me out? Whatever it was, it worked, because I burst into the cool, darkening twilight, my eyes still firmly shut from the world.

At first, I still heard their calls, their desperate attempts to make me reveal myself and come home. I heard Donovan and Miki and Soma, my wonderful friend Soma, trying to beckon me out. They knew how dangerous it was for me to be out here by myself, when I was going blind. And although some small part of me still believed that I was always going to have my sight, I knew it was true. I was going blind, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was being childish, trying to take my anger out by running away, trying to make my family understand what I was feeling by escaping. It was stupid; something a child would do, not a shinobi, not a proud ninja.

"Dad," I whispered, and the voices stopped. Eyes, of course, closed against whatever might be waiting for me when I opened them, I stumbled forward, tripping over some rock that I hadn't known was there before. Strong arms caught me, and I immediately recognized them. Soma had once again stopped me before I fell to the ground in another of my frequently occurring clumsy moments.

"Mikoto," he breathed, sounding relieved and anxious at the same time. "Are you okay? Mikoto, can you see me? Please tell me that you can see me."

I laughed at his stupidity. Couldn't he tell that my eyes were closed and of course I wouldn't be able to see him? "I can't see you, silly! My eyes are closed, duh!"

Having expected agreeing murmurs and chuckles, I was shocked when no one said anything, and Soma (I knew it was him because I recognized what his hands felt like) reached up to touch my eyes. He brushed his thumb just above my eye, just under my eyebrow. It was then that I blinked, closing my eyes for a split second and opening them again—nothing changed. It took a few moments of silence, no one moving or speaking, before I realized it. I was completely blind, just like that.

Tears filled my broken eyes, spilling over and pouring down my face. Only a few minutes ago, or maybe hours, I had seen the sky, the water, the setting sun, the trees and the grass and the dirt and the leaves and the birds and the fish and the yellow of my little fire, and the gray statues on either side of the waterfall. I couldn't be blind already—I hadn't seen Soma's face again, or anyone's face again. And now I never would. I kept blinking, kept rubbing at my eyes as if I could erase the blindness away.

"Daddy," I whispered, just before the grief washed completely over me and made the black become even blacker, sending me spiraling into unconsciousness, my only getaway from the endless emptiness of my new world.



Sasuke ran alongside Soma as the younger boy carried his beautiful little daughter back to the village. He couldn't take his eyes off the limp, tired figure that was his child, and he kept replaying in his minds eye the way Mikoto had looked when she'd come out of the small cavern in the Valley, all smiles and full of the belief that she wasn't quite blind yet. But then she'd realized her eyes were open, and Sasuke could not place the tightening feeling in his heart when her whole face fell. He'd felt his heart tug at her quiet call for him, for her daddy. He hadn't heard her call him that for years.

He desperately wanted to take her into his arms and hug her, and tell her that it was all going to be okay, but for some reason Soma would not let go. Soma refused to let anyone else carry her, claiming that he was going to take her back to the village and make sure she was alright. Sasuke took great offense to this, considering he was Mikoto's father and all, but he let the boy do what he wanted. He could see in Soma's eyes that fire that had burned so passionately in his own whenever he thought about Kaede all those years ago. Of course, he'd been too stubborn to let anyone see it. He'd only noticed it when he thought about her as he stared at his own reflection, something he still had a habit of doing.

Looking over at Soma, Sasuke thought of how the boy had always been there for his daughter when he wasn't. They'd always palled around together, training, shopping, eating, hanging out, everything; they always had the other there. If one decided to go jump in a mud puddle, the other was right behind them, cannon-balling into the muck. They stuck by each other through whatever tasks life put them through, from Chunin exams to dealing with older siblings' nasty mouths. He couldn't have wanted a better friend for Mikoto.

"Almost there, Mikoto," Sasuke heard Soma whisper to the unmoving Mikoto as they grew closer to the main area of the village. "Don't worry. You're going to be just fine."

Sasuke smirked and shook his head. Only a fool would talk to someone who wasn't going to answer back. Well, maybe not just a fool. A lovesick fool, more specifically, and Soma fit that persona perfectly. Sasuke had always imagined (due to Kaede's constant insistence on the subject) that Soma and Mikoto would eventually get together. He'd been hoping, actually, that they would become an item. So far, though, it hadn't happened.

Another glance at his daughter's closed face made all the mischief fade from his being, replaced by sorrow. He was the reason she'd run away, the reason she had always pushed herself, just to get his approval. And he'd always turned her down, told her she wasn't even close to her brother's level. He hadn't even realized the pain he was causing her. He just thought—it was the way he'd been raised, always being placed in the shadow of Itachi. It was the only sort of parenting he knew how to do. He only knew how to praise the most skilled, and encourage the weaker of the children to become more like the strongest.

Maybe his methods of parenting hadn't been the best. Hell, they were probably the worst! Hadn't Kaede always told him to be nicer to his daughter, to treat her as well as he did Itake? Hadn't she said thousands of times that he was being a bad father to Mikoto? And had he listened? No. He'd told her over and over that he knew how great Mikoto was, that she was going to become a very skilled ninja in time, but he wanted to push her a little more than he had Itachi. The way his father had.

Cursing his own stupidity under his breath, Sasuke slowed down as he and Soma ran up to the hospital where Sakura had probably gone by now, to wait. He held the door open for the boy, ran in behind him, and took his daughter from his arms. Soma tried to protest, but Sasuke threw him a death glare that shut him up. He ran back through the swinging double doors, ignoring the receptionist yelling at him that he wasn't allowed back there. He hollered for Tsunade, or Sakura, or Shizune, or anyone, to come help him, please! His daughter was in trouble!

As he ran, he looked down at the still person in his arms and said, "I promise, Mikoto, I'll be a better dad. I swear. I'll make it up to you. You deserve it."

Yay! Cute moments! Father-Daughter moments! Lol. And as a daddy's girl myself, I know that it hurts when your dad is disappointed in you. Sniff. I sympathize, Mikoto. So she's finally blind. Phew. I'll write some more soon. When I can pull myself away from my other story, that is...hehe...

REVIEW!

Luv Much!

Nicola